Thursday, June 14, 2012

The Pacific Pearl Part 2 - John S Mickman


Last week in Part I of ' The Pacific Pearl', the shrimp strike had just ended and the entire fleet was preparing to go fishing. I needed a job, and the shrimp trawler, The Pacific Pearl, skippered by Dick, was one man short...

Tony, always very animated, said,  "Ok, here comes Dick. Are you ready John?".
"I don't know Tony. I guess we'll find out!", I replied. Dick jumped on board and confirmed with Tony that Chris wouldn't arrive until the next day.

"Well, were short a guy then Tony", he announced. "I knew this would happen. We need to go right now. Do you have any ideas?".

Tony replied, "Well, John here is ready to go right now Dick. I think we should take him."

Dick looked at me with a stern look. I had met Dick on a half dozen occasions and had been helping Tony get his boat ready for the past couple of weeks, for free. "You don't have a shred of experience John. This is tough work, and tricky. Do you think you can handle it?" he asked.

This was it; my big chance. "You're right Dick, I don't have any experience. But, you don't know anyone that is a harder worker or a faster learner. If you give me this chance you won't regret it. I really want to go out with you guys", I said as sincerely as I had ever spoken in my life. "Let's go fishing!"

Dick smiled and said, "Fire up the engines Tony. John, you straighten up the deck. I won't pay you for this first trip, but I'll give you the experience you need to get on another boat when Tony's brother Chris arrives. Fair enough?"

"You bet!", I exclaimed, and the three of us went to work. After the engines were warmed up, we threw off the lines, pulled out of the harbor and traveled over to the Ice Dock. One boat was already there getting ice, and we waited just off her stern securing our place in the rapidly growing line of shrimp boats.

When that first boat pulled away, we tied up to the dock and took off the big, square, water-tight hatch cover. The Ice Dock guy lowered the huge ice hose down through the open hatch. Tony and I jumped into the hold and he handed a large snow shovel to me and explained that he would 'guide' the ice hose as far into the bins as he could, but that I needed to shovel about twelve inches of ice into the bottom of the bins that he couldn't reach. We both worked hard at our tasks until we had enough 'bottom ice' in all the bins, then we just let the ice buildup in the holds' main bin until it was almost full to the top of the hatch.

As we worked, Tony explained, "When we're shrimping, we need to ice the shrimp so they don't rot. We'll need about 15 tons of ice that we have to mix in with the catch. If we run out of ice, we have to stop fishing so we need to make sure we have plenty." When Dick and Tony agreed we had enough ice, we secured the hatch, threw off the lines and headed out to sea. How exciting was this?!

By the time we left the bay, it was dinner time and I was designated as 'The Cook'. "Yes, I sure can cook Dick", I said. This wasn't a lie, although I really didn't have very many items in my repertoire. As a student, I had been pretty good at tuna fish sandwiches and Hamburger Helper meals. However, steak was what Dick wanted, and steak is what Dick got. They turned out pretty good too!

After dinner, as Dick guided the Pacific Pearl to the fishing grounds, Tony and I went on deck and he taught me the fine points of being a deck hand on a shrimp trawler. Along the way he told me that his shorter, rubber boots were actually better on a trawler than my hip boots. He suggested, "Most of the salmon seiners wear hip boots instead of these shorter ones. You should get different boots."
"Well Tony", I said, "I really like the way these boots feel and look. I don't really like the kind you're wearing.
Tony grinned back, the way that only Tony can grin, "Well that settles it then. Your nick name is 'Hip Boot'.  And it stuck...

In Part III of 'The Pacific Pearl' find out how a green-horn like me did as a professional shrimp fisherman!


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